Detroit Tigers prospect pitcher Ty Madden has a bright future

Detroit Tigers pitching prospect Ty Madden has a bright future.

The Detroit Tigers scooped up Ty Madden with the 32nd overall pick in the 2021 MLB First-Year Amateur Player Draft. He’s a right-handed pitcher who played his collegiate ball with the University of Texas at Austin baseball program.

This is one of those picks that could wind up being a steal for the Detroit Tigers organization. Madden was impressive with the Texas Longhorns and has shown why he was taken with the team’s competitive balance round pick.

He’s spent the 2022 season between the High-A West Michigan Whitecaps and the Double-A Erie SeaWolves, where both stops have proven to be good ones. He’s shown out and performed well with both affiliates.

The Tigers have to be looking forward to what Madden can bring to the table in the future with plenty of upside on the mound as a starting pitcher. The 6-foot-3 and 215-pound starting pitcher has a lot to like about his make-up, and the stats this year have been equally exciting.

While he will likely get his season cut short sooner than later to stay on top of his arm health, it has been a spectacular performance to this point. After all, with all of the arm injuries and pitchers spending time on the Tigers organization’s Injured List (IL),  they will not take any chances with Madden. Taking the cautious route is the smart choice.

Ty Madden will be an asset for the Detroit Tigers moving forward.

Keep an eye on the Tigers and how they handle things with Madden. He made 19 starts in total with the Whitecaps in High-A, where he accumulated 87 innings pitched, managing a 3.10 ERA, a 1.09 WHIP, and punching out 84 opposing batters.

He earned his promotion to Double-A to join Erie’s squad, where he has continued to shine. Madden has made six starts, totaling 31 innings pitched. He has posted a 2.03 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP, with 40 punchouts.

Madden has been getting it done. Let’s dive a bit deeper into Madden’s make-up and stuff.

On the bump, he starts with the hands at the belt, the right foot square to the mound, and his front side a bit closed into what looks like a “stretch” look. It’s not nearly as exaggerated, but it looks similar to Spencer Strider’s feet setup with the Atlanta Braves.

As he steps, he’s got an over-the-head wind-up that leads into a knee-to-chest leg lift, getting the hands back to his chest after his over-the-head motion. He closes up and then lets his center-of-mass start his move forward. He gets his lead leg down as the hip uncoils, rotating through, getting good separation.

Works through release from a high three-quarters arm slot with quick arm stroke. He features a four-pitch mix in total. His fastball is a high-velocity pitch that pairs well with his two-breaking balls.

The heater profiles out with as a sinker at times, getting some arm-side run and sink. He pairs that with a tight-breaking slider with late movement. This pitch lives in the mid-80s. The curveball is his bigger-breaking with bigger shape to the pitch. He has not thrown the curveball as much as he used to, opting for more of a three-pitch mix.

He needed to work on his changeup to make it a real deal pitch as a part of his repertoire. He has done exactly that. The pitch is in the mid-80s with arm-side fade and appears to tunnel well off of the fastball.

What does a bright future entail for Detroit Tigers prospect Ty Madden?

With improvements being shown from where he was with the Longhorns before being drafted and a solid summer of 2022. I think there is much to like about what Madden brings to the table.

The right-handed prospect may be in Double-A and still a bit far from his big league debut. But I think he continues raising his ceiling by performing like this. As a first-rounder (Competitive Balance round), there has to be an expectation that he is going to bring a boost to the big league pitching staff one day.

The question for Madden is how high he can fly. With the way he has performed this summer, I could realistically see Madden slotting in as a number two or three in a big league rotation down the line. I do not quite think he is future “ace” material, but he continues to raise his ceiling.